The northwestern continental margin of the South China Sea, extending from the broad shelf and canyon-growth slope across the Xisha Trough, represents a relic crustal rift that eventually connects to the abyssal plain. However, the provenance and source-to-sink process of sediments in this special topography remains unclear. In this study, we present the detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology of surface sediments from the northwes...